**Abstract**

Today, online social media are as ubiquitous as they are inextricable, especially as they have become critical to every aspect of our everyday lives. In the face of this upsurge in social media use, particularly in the adolescent age-group, rates of suicide, attempted suicide, and deliberate self-harm have spiked. This chapter aims to elucidate on current-day definitions of these terminologies as well as their epidemiology regionally and globally. Furthermore, it explores any established causality as well as possible associations and contributory factors such as cyberbullying and substance abuse. The chapter also explores how trending issues such as celebrity suicide and suicide reporting have impacted on the prevalence of suicide and examines its comorbidities. Novel concepts such as the Werther and Papageno effect are highlighted. It explicates on present-day recommendations to curb this menace while also examining the possibilities and merits of using social media as a prohibitive and rehabilitative tool against suicidal behavior.

**Keywords:** social media, suicide, mental health, suicidal ideation, suicide prevention, suicidal behavior

#### **1. Introduction**

Over the past decade, suicide has gained prominence across all social groups as the world experienced a significant change in lifestyle with the rise in technological advancement. There is a significant change in the way humans connect and the way information is being shared. The advent of social media has sparked the popularization of certain terms and it serves as a go-to place for firsthand information on happenings all over the world. These come with a need for equilibrium in other to avert the dire consequences it poses on mental health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, social media usage has popularized the act of suicide both directly and indirectly, from its means of information sharing to the influence and consequences it has on emotional health. Social media have indeed resulted in an upsurge of suicide risk factors and suicide-related behaviors.

This chapter elucidates the existing affiliation between social media use and suicide. It also showcases the connection between social media and suicide on one hand and the potential of social media as a positive tool for wellbeing on the other hand.

#### **1.1 Social media, its use and popularity today**

In a world where there is a constant need to enhance communication and connect with people, it is only inevitable for humans to find means of easing the process. The fact that man is a social being who does not exist in isolation spells out the importance of Communication to human survival. With the dawn of the information age, the internet era birthed a resolution to this dire human need of communication. The twentieth century experienced a surge in technological advancement, and this heralded the more sophisticated means of information sharing via social media. Social media are a platform or are platforms that make it possible to connect with other people all over the world by enabling communication through the sharing of content and information via a computer, a website or an application. The different platforms can be categorized base on the type of content being shared and the mode of sharing. There are now social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Myspace, Snapchat, WhatsApp which provides an avenue for people all over the world to connect, communicate and share various contents in forms of pictures, videos, voice recordings, events, podcasts, web links and more. With this, people can share their day to day activities with family and friends. Although there is now a wide range of online activities that help ease work and day to day living, social media top the list as being the most popular online activity. From estimated statistics, the year 2018 revealed 2.65 billion constantly using social media worldwide. This statistic is also projected to increase to an estimate of 3.2 billion people constantly using social media in the year 2021 [1]. In Nigeria alone, 2018 statistics revealed an estimate of 29.3 million social network users which is projected to increase to an estimate of 36.8 million users in the year 2023 [1].

Social networking platforms now facilitates the ability to detect the happenings in the life of others even without reaching out, people are able to project the type of lives they so desire to be displayed for others to see even when it is dissimilar to reality. There is now the possibility of having a social media life where people's decisions are constantly being influenced by the activities of others. With these possibilities, come various gains as well as losses. Social media platforms are also a great source of news, information, entertainment, products, as well as tools for learning. Blogging websites, business directory, E-commerce website, informational websites, online communities and more are such veritable avenues for learning and obtaining information that people no longer have to physically present themselves in an educational setting in other to acquire skills. With the advent of such a video site as YouTube, there is now growing confidence in the opinion that anything can be learnt online. The advent of the internet and social media has indeed made life fluid. E-learning, E-commerce, E-banking, E-governance has changed the face of the world as it becomes more sophisticated and advanced. Social media have impacted the lifestyle of many from the way we develop social skills, relate to our loved ones, discover self and choose a career to the way we do business. There has been a significant shift and especially for the younger generation who are found to be the most avid users of social media.

A crucial point to note is the pitfalls which accompany the use of social media, it comes with experiences such as loss in concentration/motivation, comparison, lower grades, poor effects on physical and mental health, reduced social skills in real human contact, time wastage, wrong influences, quick access to vulgar information, internet Freud, cyberbullying and many more negativities. There is a prevailing irony with social media usage; could it be that the same medium which was created to ease social behavior might be the one destroying it? These evident factors demand that we get a full understanding of all precipitating and perpetuating factors of behavioral change due to social media usage, to find ways that balance can be attained. Indeed, social media are here to stay, hence; it is only important that humans establish means to unravel and unhinge its downsides.
